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Supreme Court Nears Council Meeting Prayer Decision

The U.S. Supreme Court could decide any day about the Constitutionality of prayer during government meetings in a small New York town.

Even though 4 of the 12 prayers in 2008 were given by non-Christians, including a Jewish layman, a Wiccan priestess and the chairman of the local Baha'i congregation, Greece residents Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens filed a complaint about the predominately Christian prayers during the Greece, New York board meetings.

Despite the fact that a majority of the religious entities in Greece are Christian, an appeals court ruled too many of the prayers were Christian. In Greece v. Galloway, each meeting from 1999 through 2007 had been opened with a Christian-oriented prayer.

According to FoxNews.com, This month's meeting followed suite as a Baptist minister delivered a 40-second invocation.

"Lord, we ask that the decisions that are made will be made with a lot of thought and with a lot of wisdom from you," said the Rev. Mike Metzger of First Bible Baptist Church. "In Jesus' name, I pray."

Tony Perkins of the Washington DC-based Family Research Council, maintains that although the Supreme Court upheld the practice of legislative prayer in the 1983 case Marsh v. Chambers, militant secularists are attempting to banish this practice nationwide as it has existed for over 200 years.

“The arguments presented on both sides before the Supreme Court in Galloway could impact every aspect of faith in public life and the public square, as this is Ground Zero for the war on Americans of traditional faith -- especially observant Christians -- and the increasing attacks on Christmas and other longstanding celebrations of faith. Galloway could become the most important Establishment Clause case decided by the Supreme Court in decades,” Perkins said.